Antwerp, ex officina Ioannis Withagii, 1584.
Astronomical woodcut on title-page, woodcut diagrams with volvelles on pp. 20, 25, 65 & 189, folding woodcut map of the world, over 100 woodcut plans and illustrations including one full-page cut of an astrolabe.
4to. [8] 1-72 pp. + [map]. 82-479pp. [1]f. early vellum over paste-boards, title lettered in ink, text a little toned but an attractive copy, quarter morocco case.
An important edition of Gemma Frisius of this very influential text of geography and astronomy the world map found here untrimmed and is a close copy of that first used in the French translation published in Antwerp in 1544. In this edition the signature “K” is reserved for the map, and the text restarts at signature “L”.
There are five volvelles (four with moving parts). One of the volvelles shows a map of the world including America (f. 65), while there is a chapter on the founding of America (f. 70); according to the text the discovery was by Amerigo Vespucci in 1497 “ex mandato regis Castiliae”, and it was called “novus mundus”.
As would be expected in a work published over such a long period of time, there were many different versions of Cosmographia. Of those published in Latin, there was the original edition by Apian, the corrected version by Gemma, the abridgement called Cosmographiae Introductio, and three other versions enlarged with contributions by Gemma appearing in 1531, 1539, and 1584. The first of these additions was De locorum describendorum ratione (Concerning the method of describing places) with De eorum distantijs inueniendis (Concerning determining their distances. In 1539 Usus annuli astronomici (The use of the astronomical rings) was added, and in 1584 Astrolabio catholico (The universal astrolabe).
Adams A1285. Van Ortroy, no. 61. Shirley, Mapping the World , no. 96.
